First, the waterproofing of the plant is peripheral to the quality of work that is being done there. It will make the plant last longer, but contamination by leakage through the cement would be small compared to what goes out with the end products. Obviously they take out particulates with settling basins, bag filters and carbon filters, and the latter takes out some readily adsorbable stuff. It would be interesting to know the way settlings and bags are handled.

Contrary to the way the author expresses it, they don’t take the salt out of the brine, they take the water out of the brine, leaving more concentrated brine, paste or dry mixture. Separation by evaporation requires about 15,000 cubic feet of gas per day at 210,000 gallons processed per day. Or they use reverse osmosis. The big question is what happens to the volatiles – up the stack and out into the neighborhood? Which is SOP for the fracking industry.

What about the stuff that is left after the reusable water is removed? Salt is not just NaCl, but a major class of chemicals, some of them pretty bad. There are a lot of different salts and many other kinds of chemicals in frackwater. Do they go to a landfill? or an injection well? The reject product is obviously a hazard to ground water.

It is one of a kind? Who designed it, and what engineering competence was involved? Anybody with an appropriate education involved in design or operation? One of a kind? What regulations are involved? What safety checks? What government regulation does it fall under?

Or is it “trust me, just trust me” to the public?